vivo has been keeping busy in the software department lately. Its new OriginOS is already a thing but still exclusive to just the Chinese market. Globally, the FuntouchOS skin was fairly recently bumped-up to version 12, as we saw of the vivo X70 family of devices. Those phones, however, still launched with Android 11 under the hood, whereas the vivo V23 Pro and V23 get the latest Funtouch OS 12 with Android 12 underneath.
You can find more than a few traces of the new Android core scattered about here and there, like Google's new privacy-focused green notification dot that indicates when the camera or microphone are being used or the increased "bounce back" animations on most UI components. Overall, however, the UI and UX are distinctly custom, which comes courtesy of Funtouch OS 12. The stock-ish-looking UI elements that were kind of the norm in FunTouch OS 11 have been substituted with a highly customized and customizable UI. Some of the changes are pretty nifty, too, including the system menus being tailored towards a single-handed use. Some of the menus' content moves to the lower half of the screen when you swipe down, but not all, which is odd. vivo has revamped its default selection of widgets to make them more intuitive and easier to use as well.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • Settings menu
The recent apps menu, for example, has one of those useful proprietary features. You can choose between the standard carousel formation and a horizontal tiles layout - sort of like MIUI, only scrollable horizontally.
The app drawer, although stock-ish looking, has an expandable recommended apps category on the top (most commonly used ones), whereas using the vertical scroller on the right would highlight the apps beginning with the selected letter.
Recent apps • Recent apps • Notification shade • Quick toggles • App drawer
The notification shade has been revamped too, in terms of looks mostly - the quick toggles are now square-shaped, and the accent color around the menus (including the quick toggles icons) is blue, and there's no way to change either. Applying different themes would only change the icon pack and wallpaper.
The rest of the UI gets plenty of love too. In the Dynamic effects sub-menu, vivo has grouped quite a few customizable aspects of the home screen, lock screen, animation effects, etc. There are even various charging and facial recognition animations.
The Ambient light effect gets more granular control with the option to enable it only during a limited time period, or you can choose which apps to trigger it.
Dynamic effects • Ambient light effect
The always-on display settings are in a different sub-menu, however, but the phone still gives you plenty of options to tinker with - a wide selection of animations, clock styles, colors, backgrounds, the lot.
One small but potentially important gripe we had with the vivo X70 Pro seems to have been addressed on the V23 Pro. There used to be no way to summon the fingerprint reader icon on a locked screen unless the motion sensor detects movement. Now, waking the display simply brings up the fingerprint reader as well. However, we are still not particularly happy that the double-tap-to-wake function is buried in the Smart motion menu.
The Sound menu holds a few pleasant surprises. Just like Samsung, vivo is paying attention to people with hearing problems, and you can calibrate the sound to be heard by elderly people or those with impaired hearing. Additionally, notifications and calls get separate volume sliders. The vibration intensity can be adjusted for calls and notifications independently. No system-wide eq is available for the loudspeaker, though, which could be both a negative and a positive depending on how you look at it.
The previously mentioned Smart motion menu holds a handful of familiar screen-on and screen-off gestures along with some new additions. One of those requires you to wave in front of the screen during an incoming call to answer hands-free - useful if you're cooking, for example.
Holding the volume down key can be used to launch an app or do a certain task, although the list of the latter is limited to launching the camera app, turning on/off the torch or starting recording audio. The so-called Quick action feature doesn't work when playing music for obvious reasons. Why isn't there a double-press option for Quick action, though?
Shortcuts and accessibility • Quick action • S-capture • Screen-split • Easy Touch
Having all of these customizable gestures, actions and additional features around is definitely nifty, but we can't help but feel that vivo could have organized them a bit better. As things currently stand, it is hard to find certain options, even when you know for a fact that they exist and consequently, discovering new things is even harder.
Lastly, there's a little something for the gamers. A dedicated Ultra Game Mode is available, and it has it all. Most of the features are about mitigating disturbance during gameplay or letting certain apps display heads-up notifications. One of the most intriguing features that have been around on vivo phones for a while is the ability to turn off the screen and keep the game running in the background. Especially useful for turn-based games or those requiring some sort of "farming" and "grinding". Eagle eye enhancements and 4D vibration are also quite interesting in their own right.
Overall, Funtouch OS 12 is a great step in the right direction when it comes to fluidity and snappy operation. vivo even gives you the option the speed up transitions further, which is just another option to add to the myriad of customization available here. If you are into that, then you will definitely enjoy the experience. However, those that want to use Android as Google intended might not be okay with the colorful iconography and the highly customized system menus and animations.
vivo went with MediaTek Dimensity chips for both the V23 Pro and V23. The former, which we are currently looking at, gets the tried-and-true Dimensity 1200, whereas the vanilla V23 is equipped with the newer but slightly lower-end Dimensity 920.
If we don't count the new Dimensity 9000, the Dimensity 1200 is still one of the best MediaTek has to offer. It is an efficient 6nm chip, rocking an Octa-core (1x3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3x2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) CPU setup and a Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. It is also packed with current connectivity, including Dual-Mode (SA and NSA) 5G with dual 5G standby support (Sub-6 only, no mmWave) and VoNR. For local connectivity, the V23 Pro gets Dual-Band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.2 with LE and aptX HD support and GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, NavIC support. Quite the loadout. However, there are some notable omissions, like FM radio, NFC and a slow USB 2.0 data connection.
You can get the vivo V23 Pro in one of two memory configurations - 128GB 8GB RAM or 256GB 12GB RAM. We are conducting this review on the top-tier model. Vivo also has its Extended RAM 2.0 feature loaded on both the V23 Pro and V23 for an extra 4GB of "virtual memory". Version 2.0 of vivo's implementation of this particular Android feature promises improved efficiency while using ROM storage as RAM.
Kicking things off with some pure CPU performance and GeekBench, we can see that the V23 Pro and its Dimensity 1200 clearly hold their own, particularly against other mid and upper-midrange chipsets within the same rough price range.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 870 manages to outpace the Dimensity 1200 consistently in both single and multi-threaded workloads, though not by a lot. All the while, CPU-wise, the Dimensity 1200 is about comparable to Qualcomm's newer 7-series chips, like the Snapdragon 780 and the 778G.
Higher is better
Higher is better
AnTuTu with its more compound benchmarks paints a similar picture. In fact, we are happy to see that vivo is managing impressively-high scores for a Dimensity 1200 chip on average.
Higher is better
Higher is better
GPU performance is a bit more of a mixed bag. The V23 Pro and its Mali-G77 MC9 still hold their own very well, but in some on-screen tests in particular, the fps numbers do tend to be a bit lower than form other Dimensity 1200 phones with similar FullHD+ native resolution.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Then again, looking a bit closer at the result, it seems that this behavior is limited to the older OpenGL ES 3.0 based test run. Ramping up the graphical intensity and using OpenGL ES 3.1 seems to be a lot more favorable towards the vivo V23 Pro.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Vulkan-based graphic tests seem to perform as expected to and also paint the vivo V23 is a pretty great light overall.
Same goes for 3DMark, where the V23 Pro managed to successfully max out the Slingshot Extreme runs in both OpenGL and Vulkan mode and scored very respectably on the Wild Life test. So much so, in fact, that it seemed to break away from the rest of the Dimensity 1200 pack once again.
Higher is better
Our best guess is that Android 12 is providing a boost to benchmark numbers here and there on the V23. Even if that performance delta is unlikely to transfer over, at least not to the same extent, on to real-world gaming performance, it is still a testament to the importance of running the latest Android OS.
Just to be thorough, we did put the V23 Pro through a thermal throttling test, since we were curious to find out if any of that impressive burst benchmark performance perhaps comes at the expense of long-term sustained numbers. We already know that body temperature on the V23 is not really an issue. It gets noticeably warm after a long gaming session, but is still perfectly comfortable to hold. This, in itself, is a major achievement, given the V23 Pro's slim profile.
After a solid hour of CPU torture, the vivo V23 Pro expectedly loses a sizable chunk of its raw performance to heat. Thermal-throttling in a closed thermal system is inevitable. The way said throttling is handled is much more important, though, and we were happy to see that the V23 Pro never experienced sudden jarring drops in performance but instead managed to gradually dial back. That's the kind of behavior you want to see, and we commend vivo for it.
Overall, the vivo V23 gets top marks in the performance category. Not only does it have capable internals, but it also manages to cope with heat surprisingly well. On top of that, Funtouch OS 12 provides a very smooth and highly customizable and feature-rich experience. Its new Android 12 base is likely helping a bit in this regard as well, and we appreciate its presence. Sans for a few gripes we have with vivo's automatic refresh rate switching logic, we have no complaints regarding performance on the V23 Pro. It is excellent all around, even exceeding expectations at times.
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